MVN - Most Valuable Network

Defense Looms Large for Hawks

With what seemed like half of the team either on IR or scratched, allowing only 10 shots by the visiting Vancouver Canucks tells the whole story.

The Hawks executed their game plan to perfection. That plan was to disrupt Vancouver’s cycling in order to make the Sedins a non-factor, play physical, and drive to the net. Every Blackhawk adhered to those three mantras and the end result was a 4-1 win on home ice in front of a near sell-out crowd.

You can’t even really pick apart anything the Hawks did to find a mistake to point at either.  If not for that lone Ryan Kesler goal towards the end of the second which was a gift from the hockey gods via a lucky bounce, I’d call it a flawless game for the Blackhawks.

The power play which the Hawks scored on was worked magnificently. Their movement away from the puck created opportunities for whoever had the puck and vice versa and the blueliners (I avoid the term “defensemen” because Williams played at the point) kept the puck in the offensive zone without fail.  This wasn’t just on the power play either.

On the defensive side of things, the fact that Chicago was only credited with three blocked shots only tells half the story. The first half of the story is that you could assume that the guys weren’t getting in harm’s way. However, if you look at the shot total, the correct conclusion would be is that the Hawks held the Canucks to only 13 shots attempted. This says incredible things about the boys’ body positioning tonight. The defense was just unspeakable. Even on the penalty kill, they made it look effortless.

I guess if you must nit-pick, Dowell looked pretty bad after being recalled. He took a couple penalties and was invisible on the ice outside of that. Bryan Bickell was also recalled and served his purpose by adding size to the lineup. He’s still very young but was also invisible and needs to find his way back to Rockford for awhile. Kontiola and Versteeg have already been recalled and reassigned while all of these injuries are being evaluated.

As for the highlights, Patrick Kane had a fantastic game as he netted two goals and an assist. Andrew Ladd scored his second goal as a Blackhawk too. Ben Eager even found the scoresheet after assisting on Kane’s goal midway through the third. This was Eager’s first game back on the ice after missing another month with post-concussion syndrome. He logged just under nine minutes of ice time but he was a force to be reckoned with when he was out there.

I can’t help but compare Ladd and Eager to Ruutu and Koci. The upgrade is really becoming apparent. Koci was good for uniting fists and faces while Ruutu was good for getting under the other team’s skin but wasn’t big enough to finish what he started. Burish really had the market cornered on that if you stop to think about it. Neither of them had other elements to complement their game. Ladd and Eager bring relatively well-rounded games and lots of upside and especially Andrew Ladd. This seems like the type of guy who just never had the chance he needed to reach his potential and it’s coming out when he actually sees the ice.

Tale of Two Teams

I guess you had to expect a clunker in Dallas on the road Thursday after a 1-0 shutout the night before at home against Phoenix.

The good news is that Patrick Lalime stood on his head on Wednesday to notch his first shutout of the season. Newcomer Andrew Ladd led the team in shots with five and Jason Williams tallied the eventual game-winner in the first period. I suppose the most important news coming from this game was that Martin Havlat is again injured. And again, it’s his shoulder. He left the ice early in the second in the same manner he did in Minnesota during the first game of the season. It really shouldn’t affect the team much since they’ve played nearly half of the season without him in the lineup anyway. If the choice were up to me, I’d definitely shut him down for the rest of the year and cross my fingers that he can start next season healthy. Hopefully management isn’t counting on him to be a top six forward from here on out.

Let’s not the injury to Havlat rain on the parade though. The Hawks played fantastic defensively and their puck control was pretty decent up until the third period when they allowed the Coyotes to sprinkle Patrick Lalime with 16 shots. They stayed out of the box for the most part too. All in all, it was a very solid effort.

Immediately after the game, they beat feet to the airport and left for Dallas for a game against the second-best team in the NHL. Following the hard-fought win versus the Coyotes and on short rest, the Hawks weren’t ready at all for this game.

The Stars’ new acquisition Brad Richards lit up the Hawks with five assists and was a big factor in chasing Patrick Lalime in the second period. Lalime allowed five goals on only 13 shots. Corey Crawford relieved him and gave up two of his own. At least he slowed the bleeding. I don’t know why Savvy didn’t just give Crawford the start in this one since he’s a fan of switching goalies for back-to-back games. It would’ve given the organization a good on idea how close Crawford really is to being NHL ready. Also, it’s not like the Stars are one of the teams we’re battling for that last playoff spot anyway so if Crawford got blown out, it wouldn’t have been a huge loss for the team.

Regardless, things actually looked good early in the game when Dustin Byfuglien put the Hawks ahead 1-0 on the power play. It was one of those gritty goals down in the paint and it was nice to see his hard work beginning to pay off for him. From there though, the Dallas onslaught began and the Stars scored the next five goals with Richards assisting on three of them.

The Blackhawks woke up a little bit in the third and scored three goals of their own but even those would not have been enough if Dallas had been done at that point. Rene Bourque scored two goals and one was while Chicago was shorthanded. Him and Patrick Sharp really have something going with those. Andrew Ladd scored the other goal and it was his first as a Blackhawk. He’s already scored more goals than Tuomo Ruutu did in his last two and a half months in Chicago.

Dallas popped in two goals in the final period and the game would end with a final score of 7-4 in favor of the Stars.

Sadly, this game against the Stars was Niklas Hjalmarsson’s first NHL game. He wound up with no points, a -2 rating, two penalty minutes, and one shot. He replaced Andrei Zyuzin who sat out with a groin injury.

By the way, is Adam Burish going for some kind of record for penalty minutes? This appears to be his personal mission this year. I hope Ben Eager comes along soon and can add some offense to that role. I like Burish and all but I could go out there and get my face pounded every night too. Just have that paycheck ready when the game is over. Burish really is just a tiny version of David Koci with a smile.

Catching Up; Deadline Notes

It’s been awhile since we’ve touched base here so let’s do a quick recap:

The Hawks choked away a 5-1 lead on Saturday in Los Angeles but end up getting two points in overtime. The important thing here is the win since it really doesn’t matter if the Kings close in on us. Heck, they still have to get past Edmonton. What’s most important is forcing those teams above us to get their two points as well to keep us out of the race.

On Sunday, the Anaheim Ducks strangled the Blackhawks. This wasn’t entirely unexpected since Teemu is back and the Ducks really look like they’re all twice the size of our players. Even their forwards make some of our defensemen look small. After Lalime’s collapse in the third period on Saturday, he started off poorly in this one and Crawford was quickly put in since Khabibulin was back in Chicago getting an MRI on, well, his back. Results were negative (in the good way) so he’s now day-to-day.

Brent Sopel, on the other hand, missed both weekend games and will miss some time with a broken bone in his wrist. Sadly, this means that Zyuzin will be stalking the blue line in his absence. This will definitely expose the lack of depth we have at that position. The Vandermeer for Eager trade looks worse and worse with every game Eager misses due to post-concussion syndrome.

And now it’s time to discuss the moves Dale Tallon made at the trade deadline today. There were two of them and neither one was of the blockbuster variety that would take attention away from the trading of Brad Richards, Brian Campbell, Marian Hossa, and Cristobal Huet.

Some interesting rumors that surfaced but never came to fruition was Khabibulin to Ottawa, Havlat to Boston, and Williams to Nashville. The Williams trade never got momentum as I never did find out who would have been coming to Chicago. The Khabibulin to Ottawa trade was just some wishful thinking since every goaltender on the block was supposedly headed to the Senators at some point on Tuesday. The most interesting trade (and by interesting I mean, most lopsided for the Blackhawks) was Havlat going to the Bruins for Phil Kessel. Kessel is basically the Jonathan Toews of their organization and a trade like that would’ve been outright larceny on Tallon’s part. I doubt this deal ever saw the light of day but it sure did bring a smile to my face when I first read it.

Moving on to reality, Tallon did make two minor moves today. Having the most impact will be the trading of Tuomo Ruutu to the Carolina Hurricanes for youngster Andrew Ladd. I’ll admit that I do not know much about Ladd but reading what others have stated, he’s another guy of Ruutu’s ilk being that he was drafted high but never panned out when it comes to down to scoring ability. On the surface it reeks of one of those “change of scenery” swaps as both players are restricted free agents at the end of the year.

Anytime Ruutu was on the ice, you could see him jumping into a flattening body check. Though entertaining, Savard harps on his physical guys being in front of the net to pick up garbage and Ruutu never really liked to stay in one place long enough to accomplish that. Ladd sounds to be a more stay-at-home forward and may fit better into the master plan. The next month or so will be a nice trial run. Also, Ladd makes less money and is not arbitration-eligible while Ruutu is. So the icing on the cake here is that if the Hawks don’t resign Ladd, that money can be used on that big name free agent we’re all looking forward to.

The second move was Martin Lapointe being sent to my next favorite team, the Ottawa Senators. In return the Hawks received a sixth round pick for the upcoming draft. A trade like this was highly expected as Lapointe’s leadership has been absorbed by Toews and Lapointe just can’t bring it like the young guys can. Lapointe was a class act all the way in his time with the Chicago Blackhawks. I know I dragged him through the mud on more than one occasion but overall, he was the best pseudo-captain available. Good luck to him and may he help Ottawa in their quest for the Cup.

And that was it for the Chicago Blackhawks. It’s too bad we couldn’t get something for Zyuzin or Perreault since they’ll be free agents next year and they’ll go away for free. Havlat and Khabibulin sticking around may not be so bad for us though as some might think. Though both of them have obviously under-performed while wearing the Indianhead (Commit to the Indian!), they’ll both be in contract years next season so maybe they’ll play up to their potential to get that next big contract. I’d count on it more from Havlat than Khabibulin at this point though since Nik has already made the most of his cash and is definitely closer to retirement.

Tallon did what I was hoping he’d do. He didn’t have a yard sale and he didn’t get all Steinbrenner on us. He knows that the largest pieces are in place and there’s no reason to give up assets when the premier players can be had with just Rocky Wirtz’ checkbook in the offseason.

Finally! We’re Not the Last

After a lot of waiting on pins and needles, the Chicago Blackhawks can finally say that they held an opponent scoreless for an entire 60 minutes. Wednesday’s shutout of the Minnesota Wild came courtesy of Nikolai Khabibulin who was playing in his first game back after a mild sprain in his knee. This was his first shutout as a Chicago Blackhawk and it couldn’t have come at a better time after a 5-1 drumming in St. Louis the night before.

Recently, the Hawks have been making some big plays in the first few minutes of every game. Tonight they actually avoided fighting until the second period but it was Patrick Kane who provided the early fireworks as he was able to get the quick momentum going in Chicago’s favor with a goal at the 3:49 mark. Minnesota hung in there during the first period but for the most part, the Hawks were in control and that didn’t stop going into the second.

Being that the Hawks were taking the body to Marian Gaborik, the Wild aimed to reassert themselves to start the second period. They laid a hit on little Patrick Kane and Brent Seabrook took exception. This all began only 21 seconds after the faceoff. It was Minnesota captain Nick Schultz who stepped up to Seabrook’s challenge and he paid the price. Seabrook dominated the fight and that was as close as the Wild would get to the Chicago superstars. Minnesota outshot the Hawks quite heavily in the second period but right when they needed it the most, the Hawks sucked the wind right out of their sails. Despite the pressure applied by the Wild’s offense, they could not solve Nikolai Khabibulin. In fact, it was David Bolland who lit the lamp with only 20 seconds left in the period and it was the Hawks who snuck off the ice with a goal of their own.

In the third, again, the Wild came out hoping to get back in the game. The Hawks had the most dangerous lead in hockey and a lone goal would cut it in half. Unfortunately for them, Mr. Bolland struck again at 5:24. After this point, Minnesota was forced to play in a way they are not used to. Instead of sitting on the lead and going into a shell, they were forced to try and open it up to try and keep pace with the Blackhawks. Khabibulin would have none of it though. The outcome of the game was decided when the Hawks were able to kill off a two-man disadvantage late in the game and Khabibulin was rewarded with a shutout as he stopped all 38 Minnesota shots in the contest.

In other good news, Jason Williams came off the IR and played for the first time since November. He only logged 13 minutes of ice time but after a groin injury/hernia surgery, you definitely don’t want to rush him back. The Hawks only received one power play in the game so where we missed Jason the most, he was not often needed or missed in this one. Marty Lapointe was scratched to make room for Williams’ return.

The Hawks now head west to take on those pesky Los Angeles Kings in a matinee on Saturday followed on Sunday by a game in Anaheim against the Ducks.

The Hawks would have to lay a pretty large goose eggs if they don’t come out of Los Angeles with two points. Especially with team that’s nearly 100% healthy and when they’re this desperate for points and trying to make a run at the playoffs. he game in Anaheim will be significantly tougher as the Hawks struggled with them even before Scott Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne started suiting up again. The Ducks are looking a lot more like the Stanley Cup champions of last season lately.

After a couple days off here, they better be ready to play.

I’ll be heading off on vacation for the weekend so I’ll recap this weekend’s happenings when I get back. GO HAWKS!